10 TED Talks to Re-think Your Marketing

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as the successor.

TED started as a conference to bring together people from the Technology, Entertainment, and Design worlds. TED.com posts speeches from experts, which TED describes as “riveting talks by remarkable people.” These are known as TED Talks.

Here are 10 TED Talks that might make you re-think your current marketing strategy.

Your website visitors are looking for content: products, ideas, and, most of all, help. Renny Gleeson, a former game designer and now global digital strategies director at Wieden+Kennedy, talks about the “404 page,” which visitors encounter when a URL doesn’t exist. It’s a comical look at good marketing and design on a web page you hope your prospects never see.

The concept of a “movement” doesn’t always come with a positive connotation. However, a movement behind your brand could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Derek Sivers — founder of CD Baby, and now owner of MuckWork — explains what goes into making a movement, and how you might start one.

Consumers buy to be happy, and to fill a want or need. The Internet has made choice a given, as opposed to an option. Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker magazine, points out how these two factors drove the spaghetti sauce industry to change.

Virginia Postrel, a journalist for The Atlantic and Forbes, dissects glamor, and expands its definition to include any “calculated, carefully polished image designed to impress and persuade.” She says there is an opportunity to utilize glamor in marketing, regardless of product or service being offered.